"Home, where I learned the truth about despair, as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth... Hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy... So simple... Many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope."

One loss, World War II. And people really need to learn their history before they give them shit for surrendering. In World War I, 73% of their 9 million man army was killed, maimed, or taken prisoner. That doesn't include civilian casualties. 6 out of 10 males ages 18 to 30 were killed in a country with a total population of 40 million at the outset of the war. If that shit happened, then the same people showed up with tanks 15 years later, you'd consider surrendering, too.

And many more French civilians resisted in secret by hiding and thus saving Jews, Blacks, Gays, and the Disabled. In my book, the French people are just as much heroes of that war as the Brits and Americans.

Very true; think how much courage it takes to storm a well-fortified beach to push back an enemy that's been told to you is vile, hateful, and coming for you after he's done with his neighbors. You know friends will die, you could very well join them. It's terrifying, but you've got a huge industrial power and a fresh fighting force at your back.

Now imagine that your country was one of those neighbors. Overrun, living under the thumb of some of the most . . . well, unpleasant groups in modern history. You know at any time they could come for you, and harboring fugitives from them could earn you any number of fates worse than death. But you do it anyway. You have no hope of winning any sort of outright battle, but you have brave men and women who sneak away to share intelligence with those who might be able to; you risk your life, often that of your family, because not doing so is risking so much more. You're more aware of the danger than any of these foreign fighters, but you won't let it stop you because people like this cannot be allowed to win.

Both groups impress the hell out of me, but I have got to give the French the nod on this one. Add to that that the Nazis invaded and crushed a whole different sovereign state just to bypass the Maginot line . . . yeah. There's some truly noble badassery there. But, y'know, hurr-hurr French lose all the time and surrender, stink cheese-and-snail-eaters. Sometimes, my countrymen embarrass me and all of the amazing humans who sacrificed themselves to stop a man, party, and idea that could very well remade civilization into something far worse than it currently is.

We definately did in the 40s, and I think we did until the late 50s-early 60s then the USSR took over in terms of sheer numbers.

But seriously, nobody is stupid enough to launch them at this point... well maybe the people are, but no GOVERNMENT is. The people compromising the government are too self-serving. They know if they launch a nuke, it is the end for them.

It's sad how deeply religion is rooted into this country's beliefs and actions. If we could literally let go of religion we'd probably be able to make things for the better and start moving to major progress.

By let go, I don't mean convert everyone to atheism, that's not what America was founded on and would be silly. Atheism is better off without having converts of the extremist religious sort. What I do mean is that if we let people believe in a god or not believe in a god and make choices that are better for our citizens rather than for the majority (theists). Because honestly, how big of a deal is gay marriage? In the grand scheme it's barely a pebble in the ocean.

And as for OP, Atheists being here doesn't make much of a difference as PolarTheBear says. We're just here to pay taxes and attempt to cause change.

They merely clarify what is already in The Constitution. The Constitution was never meant to be read literally, don't ya know. I know this because I believe it says this in The Constitution which I haven't read.

While it's not meant to be manipulated it definitely needs to be read in context. That's why it bothers me when people pretend the 2nd amendment is ambiguous or is about carrying concealed weapons in public; it exists so the populous can form anti-government militias in case of massive government tyranny. This would effectively repeat the revolution if the people felt the federal government mistreated them as much as some people in the colonies felt they were treated by the government in London.

And in this context, the 2nd amendment does not make sense in modern context. Given the massive growth of the military-industrial complex, could any group form a stockpile of weapons large enough to defeat the U.S. government? I highly doubt it. And for these reasons I think the amendment needs at the very least to be modified.

I'm not against people owning guns. I think with the proper training and mindset, guns are perfectly acceptable tools for both defense and recreation. But we need to take a much more serious stance on guns in the country then we have now. I mean you can buy guns at Walmart in certain places of the country! And while the fact that you can buy them this easily is worrisome enough, the fact that this makes guns even easier to steal is even more worrisome.

And that's all without even mentioning the laissez-fair attitude taken to most gun shows and the incredible ease of access to high caliber weaponry at places like this.

We need to make sure that people who own guns know what kind of serious consequences they can carry and what powerful tools they are. Maybe a better registry for people with known serious psychological conditions to avoid giving out guns to people who will use them shortly to commit heinous acts.

Making guns illegal is obviously not going to help anyone any better than the prohibition of alcohol or anything; that only turns everything into a black market and introduces a myriad of other problems for society as a whole. But it should also be pretty clear by the ridiculously high number of gun crimes per capita in the U.S. that what we're doing now could be vastly improved upon.

Some people try to make peaceful change within their country and pay the consequences. Other people flee with their families to a safer life.

A minority group of peaceful atheists isn't going to turn the tide of America's creeping radicalization. I foresee a time when the UN tries to introduce peace-keeping forces and election observers in America. There's a limit to what I'll let my family be subjected to before we decide to escape.

Except that they are actually held to vote as their state's population does, baring certain exceptions (IE no one gets the majority) the only difference between electoral college and the popular vote stems from the census only being held every 10 years.

Major herp derp of the constitution stems from the way non majority cases are handled as the system has issues if the country is pulling in multiple directions, since you get this sort of parliament like situation but with non of the 'vote of no confidence' and other such stuff.

Yeah... I know it's a decent system, but it still bothers me that the way it's designed makes it possible to lose the popular vote (actual number of people who vote for you), but still win the election via the Electoral College system (win the most electoral college points(?)).

I imagine that when it was created, they knew it was possible but were were like, "Nah, that has such a slim chance of happening, I don't think we should worry about it." But then it did happen in 2000, so I feel like we should try and find a solution, since our elections are so damn close these days, which makes it more likely to happen.

It's all fucking futile. You can't discuss the irrationality of religion with fundamentalists and you can't discuss gun control (and how bad the propaganda is right now) with anyone who doesn't know history, and many liberals don't.

Political discourse is a joke in this country because we're currently really satisfied with the efficiency of our discussion and using condescension as a means to polarize the sides, by making one side hop up and down with rage at the ignorance and the other side hop up and down at the percieved ignorance. One way or anther, the perceived ignorance from both sides goes up, and up, and up. Pissing someone off is the best way to make them abandon logic and rationality and give into the reptilian brain. We will never come together, we can only hope to endure each other, and the polarization is only getting worse. Reddit is proof of that -- we just have to wait until the factions subdivide over internal polarizations to the point that they all forget where they started.

It's going to be a slow process that we may not survive because we either believe in global warming and don't believe in gun rights, or we don't believe in global warming, but believe in gun rights. If the earth gets hotter and we don't take care of everyone, that means the shit will inevitably hit the fan, and the side that knows it's coming is oblivious to the need to think ahead and that the peace we've come to take for granted, will be sustainable, and that our government is beyond oppressive corruption, or they are denying the risks, encouraging anti-intellectualism and they have all the guns, so the survivors are going to be regressives.

This is why I say "liberals, stop being in favor of gun control and go buy your guns now so that you will also survive the zombie apocalypse, if it can be survived, or the future is going to be extremely one sided."

No, but the most sensational editorials that imply things like "AKs are not for citizens" is being given credibility by both the media and the president. They put out the bumper sticker and people want to buy it.

Well, it's sort of an interesting problem. A lot of that is just the word "atheist" - you'll find that a lot of people don't really have much of a problem with somebody who is nonreligious or doesn't believe in God; but an atheist, well that's a different story. There's a general conception of atheists as people who absolutely know for a FACT that there is no God, and that they're basically the same as nihilists etc... and I will confess to having held this conception (not really the nihilist part though) before reading The God Delusion and seeing Dawkins define an atheist in terms of somebody who believes probabilistically that there is no God. So for good or evil, if asked what I am in terms of religion I am more inclined to say I'm non-religious or a non-theist.. and this is met overwhelmingly with understanding and acceptance, even from very religious people; which is a huge difference from the palpable animosity I've felt from people when identifying as "atheist".

I can't copy and paste a link right now as I'm on my phone but I can tell you that the amount of nukes in every country HAS to be reported to the U.N. and is therefore open to public knowledge as of the treaty on the Non-prolifteration of nuclear weapons. Also you should google 'Nuclear stockpiles by country'

The UN has plenty of power coming from its permenment board of members who vote on legitlations. It was created because the league of nations had no power and as of the treaty that I mentioned above, nuclear stockpiles must be reported.

Well, you feel free to come here and put up with the discrimination, hate, violence, and worse that comes from living in an "unofficial" church-state, and I'll move where I don't have to spend the rest of my life dealing with it. If you're that concerned about it.

I've done my time, I've been an activist, I am burnt out. The social issues that matter to me are not changing in my lifetime. The accident of my birth here doesn't make me responsible for fixing it. So I think I'll keep those plans to leave when I can. Financial reality is the only reason I haven't yet.

Born and raised in USA. I absolutely hate it here, but I haven't moved because being close to family is important to me. Been tempted many times, though. :(

Also, I'm not sure how the logistics would work. If I move to a country, I need a job to survive. It's impossible (for me) to get one before I move, because who wants to hire someone in another country. Also, it mostly limits me to English-speaking countries, which is unfortunate.

Jubal smiled happily. "It won't be necessary now, as you have let slip - unwittingly, or was it intentional? - the one datum needed before we act. If we do. I can hold them off the rest of the day — but the code word is no longer 'Berquist.'"

"What the devil do you mean?"

"My dear Captain, please! Not over an unscrambled circuit surely? But you know, or should know, that I am a senior philosophunculist on active duty."

"Repeat?"

"Haven't you studied amphigory? Gad, what they teach in schools these days! Go back to your pinochle game; I don't need you."

On the other hand, now it behooves those people in the other countries to come here and help us fix this shit.

In fact, why don't we set up some sort of exchange programs, where we scatter fundies all over the world (thus expanding their horizons and, with any luck, curing their fundieism), and gather cool people from around the world here to stack the deck? Win-win.

Assuming Superman can travel at supersonic speed which is about 343m/s, he will arrive at the sun in about 13.83 years. If he flies at light speed which is about 3.0 * 108 m/s, he will arrive in around 8.3 minutes. Or he could just disable them with his heat vision or something like that.

It's not as if atheists have any real power here. The fundies ARE in charge of the stockpile and nothing we say or do will change that. I make myself feel better by imagining that if I weren't here and America did some fucked up shit, the rest of the world would nuke the fundies all to heaven. Pipe dream? Hell yeah. Still, though.

It mostly just pisses me off because I'm an American, with family in Canada, who tried to get citizenship there. And I failed. It pisses me off that so many Americans think that they can just walk up to any border and yell "LOL LET ME IN I'M FROM THE US AND MY SUPERIORITY SHOULD GIVE ME ACCESS!!!!"

Reason being is because the US isn't dedicated to the very people who help support it. It treats us like a worthless piece of meat by taking away our rights one by one, healthcare is an abomination, and the fundamentalists are a joke. I myself am rather educated especially compared to some of the people I've met who are 'in charge'.
I would much rather be in another country (i.e. Canada) where people are put first.

Thank you. A lot of my friends say the same thing about wanting to move out of the country. I feel like I'm in the minority in this, but I actually really like this country for a lot of reasons. Obviously there are a whole lot of people that I have a problem with and our government has done a lot of things that no one is proud of, but there is a lot of good here too. If all of the good, rational people with the means leave, then all that will be left are the crazies, and those without the means to get out. That's an awful deal for those left behind and a horrible demise for a country that still has a lot of potential. It's going to be an uphill battle, but as much as I love so many other countries, this is my home and I would rather make it better for my future kids and the next generation than leave it to those fucks that are in control of it now.

Hell, half of my friends that say that don't even vote. If you aren't willing to put a little bit of effort into making this a better place, then taking off for somewhere else is just lazy.

I am thoroughly convinced that the US has never had a religious President, despite what they might say to the contrary. Sometimes you can just tell the true believers vs. those who use it as a tool. If Huckabee ever becomes President..........god help us all.

Ok this is a very stereotypical view of christians. While yes many are very much like the way you describe them, many, besides their religious beliefs, are very much like the ordinary human beings atheists are attributed to being.

Thank you. The people on this subreddit will never admit that there are religious people with more technical knowledge than them. There are a lot of smart christian engineers and scientists out there. Believe it or not...

The reason atheist will never be the majority is because they spend more time worrying about what their evil Christian counterparts are doing to the country , they so dearly love but want to leave . You see talk is cheap and gets you no where , as you sit on reedit passing away endless hours , we evil Christians are out taking action and getting elected to positions of power so that we can rule the world and have freaking sharks with laser beams on their heads . muuu ahhh ahhhh ahhhh ! Minnie me where are you ?

I still want to leave the U.S. for a different country... but the pros and cons just make it harder to decide "where can i possibly go to live freely?". I've literally found less than ten countries around the world of which I can tolerate on just a religious and legal standpoint.

I submitted my application for Canadian citizenship about 5 years ago and still never heard back. I meet all of the qualifications but it just doesn't matter. So, I don't give a fuck any more. Fuck Canada you're just as bad as the U.S. anyhow. Jailing people for no reason for days and forcing them to starve just doesn't float my boat. Trying to cause more environmental disasters just do it for my either.

The same year I did this, when I was 19, I became a hardcore political activist and began contacting my representatives and senators on at least a weekly basis. Because of what I'VE DONE in this country, there have been several environmental laws that have been passed, civil rights laws, health care laws, assholes that have tried to ruin peoples' lives have stepped down, corporations trying to destroy our rights have failed (in some aspects), etc.

You CAN win rights back, you CAN win your freedom back... you just need to realize that fear or failure isn't an option. IF YOU WANT THIS COUNTRY TO CHANGE YOU NEED TO ENSURE THAT YOU'RE PROACTIVELY TRYING TO SOLVE THE ISSUES IN THIS COUNTRY.

We don't need a fucking military to protect ourselves from our corporatism government, we need the American people as a whole to fight back non-violently and non-physically with privacy taken into account. We are our own army as numbers of opinions control government officials, which controls the laws in this country. We can easily expose the corruption in our government officials that we want ousted and it's worked before. Once these assholes are out of office, you vote for who you think should be a decision maker in this country after thoroughly researching their history, views and achievements- or you're going to fuck us repeatedly in the ass until we're bleeding and go septic because of this corruption.

So the question is, do you want to fight for your own personal freedom? If you do, you will have the nerve to do something about it and WILL do it.